It is now known that the Zika virus and the two types of mosquitos that carry the virus are in the Tampa Bay area as well.
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“The Zika virus does not discriminate against county, state or country borders, and we must do everything in our power to ensure our communities are aware of Zika and protected against its negative impacts that can forever change the lives of Californians”, Hernandez said.
In the United States, locally acquired cases have been found only in some neighborhoods in Miami, Fla., according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“We’re trying to understand the basic mechanisms of how the virus infects the mosquito, how it’s transmitted and how the mosquito picks it up”, Riehle said.
According to the Washington Post, babies with microcephaly were compared with babies born about the same time in hospitals in Brazil.
The participation of Brazilian researchers in this study is not trivial. Health officials have speculated that genetic or environmental factors, or prior dengue infections, can increase the risk of Zika leading to microcephaly.
“A high proportion of mothers of newborns with and without microcephaly had been infected with Zika virus, reflecting the rapid spread of Zika infection in this region”.
In a study conducted among newborns in Brazil – hardest hit by a joint outbreak – almost half of 32 infants with microcephaly had traces of Zika virus in their blood. It typically causes no or only minor symptoms. That might explain why 19 (59 percent) of the microcephalic babies did not test positive for Zika, they suggested. Infants with microcephaly had their head circumference measured and most underwent brain imaging.
These were preliminary results, the team said, with findings on another 400-plus babies included in the study to follow later.
In the editorial, Brasil and Nielsen-Saines wrote that the study raised the question of how microcephaly is defined.
“Infants might be diagnosed with microcephaly when in fact they are globally small-ie, small for gestational age, without true isolated microcephaly”, Brasil wrote in a commentary.
Red Cross officials will interview potential blood donors in detail and ask if they have visited a country that has had cases of Zika transmission and anyone who has will have to wait 28 days before making a blood donation, The Nation was told yesterday.
In addition to microcephaly at birth, physical development and growth continued to lag behind as the newborns aged.
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But, she added, “If there’s microcephaly because there’s structures in the brains that are missing, then it’s a very different story”.
